I have been looking at a couple of different types of planes lately and trying to decide which is better for my purposes. I want plane that I can use for rabbets and dadoes. I plan to get either a router plane, like a Veritas router plane or Stanley No. 71, or a plow (or plough if you prefer) plane like the Stanley No. 45 or the Veritas plow plane. Which do you think is the better plane for rabbets and dadoes?

-- Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love my 45 and use it much more than my router plane, but both have their purpose and place in the shop. Really, I’ve been eyeing that Veritas plow plane for awhile, but I can’t endorse it from experience.

I LOVE my Veritas plow plane. With the ability to add the T&G set up and blades it is really quite versatile. I also use my Veritas router plane often. It is great at cleaning up the bottoms of dados, tuning tenon cheeks, etc…

Both of those tools are great. I use the Veritas router all the time. I bought the router to clean up dados after I use a saw and chisels to clear out the bulk of the waste, but since buying it I use it for all sorts of tasks. If you are going to try to use it to do the entire dado, I don’t think it will work.

I also own the plow plane and I like that too. I mainly use it for drawer bottoms and panels. I have never tried to use it as a dado plane, but it does have a wide variety of blades that can be puchased sepretly that might work for dados. My concern is the lack of scoring blades, that will make it hard to cut cross grain.

If you can only get one now, i would get the dado plane…it has the nicker to cut cross grain but will also cut rabbets and grooves with the grain. The 45 is great with several (or all) different cutter sizes….don’t recall if it comes with a nicker for cross grain work. Eventually you will want a router plane. It cleans up the agressive cuts made by rabbet, dado, grooving or plow planes. It is not like a router you plug in that can start the cuts, its for cleaning up bottoms of grooves and dados. I would think about which sizes of grooves/dados or rabbets you will be needing to cut the most in the near future and get something that will cut that first. You know, don’t you, that you will be buying/making more hand planes once you start using them, right? ;)

-- The only gift is a portion of thyself. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

For dado’s, a skewed iron will do better work than the straight iron on a #45, but it does do an ok job at it. I typically use the #71 as a clean up tool, but I have also used just it and a marking knife to do stopped dadoes. I’ve also just chiseled out dadoes as well. Really, there’s no absolute need for either, I guess lol. Just depends on how you work, but I’d say a skew plow (#46, or equivalent) would be ideal, but a #45 is more practical, and affordable.

Love me some #45

Re: Arookar, the #45 came with 2 removable knickers (or spurs) for both the main body casting, and the skate, for cross grain work. As did the #46.